Cargolux Hotel Committee

With this newsletter, we would like to give you a little overview of the Voyage Reports on Hotel deficiencies you sent us over the year 2019 and show you the statistic that highlights some of the events and trends we picked up.

A staggering amount of 77 Voyage Reports was received as pdf-copies and we would like to thank you for not only sharing your reports with us, the Hotel Committee, but also taking the effort to put it into writing. This allows us to follow up with Senior Management on deficiencies, unsuitable hotels and directly getting in contact with hotel management, even if that station received a single report over the entire year!

40 reports were directly related to “Crew Rest Disturbance”, where some of them are simply the consequence to no updated bookings and the common calls from housekeeping/reception to check on the booking status with the crew member directly. Unfortunately, not all Voyage Reports are being properly investigated as they don’t always end up with the right department. Crew rest disturbances has also been brought up at the FSAG when you have filed ASRs after having delayed a flight.

Your reports are well received and enable us to show the trends and highlights to Senior Management, address omissions to OM-A/CWA requirements and provide proof to flawed bookings procedures etc. It also highlighted to the company that certain hotels were well below standard (e.g. GIG airport hotel) thus enabling us to address the issues with them and to subsequently move to approved and inspected hotels by the Hotel Committee like in Almaty, New York, Seoul and of course Anchorage. In Columbus our recommended hotel was disregarded and we were forced to move to the current hotel that still receives Voyage Reports.

Below we broke down a few highlights in more details such as:

ANCHORAGE
The highlight and biggest issue in the last year was quite obviously the Anchorage Hilton with 26 reports alone and these reports were received within roughly 3 months! We sometimes received multimedia attachments to demonstrate the unacceptable outside noise level, got shown pictures of technical deficiencies in bathrooms, broken window handles and frames etc.

Various reasons led to this spike and in summary we can say that the vast amount of reports could have been avoided if we had either been able to stay at the Marriott or if we had been able to move quicker to the Sheraton. Unfortunately, the Marriott canceled the contract with Cargolux and forced us to the Hilton, were unfortunately the agreed renovated rooms were not always reserved for us as initially agreed by the hotel.

HONG KONG
The reports we received for Hong Kong were only related to the airport hotels booked during the social unrest, the Regal and the Marriott. After being consulted again for the recent and temporary move to the airport, the Marriott SkyCity was selected. We clearly communicated to Senior Management our concerns due to the previous Voyage Reports we received, mostly related to aircraft and construction noise next door. We recommended the Novotel Hong Kong Citygate in Tung Chung, which was inspected by us in October 2019 with enough proximity to the airport and the Citygate Outlets in walking distance, with its many food and shopping options as well as the adjacent MTR station. The argument against it was, that social distancing in the Novotel Crew transport could not be guaranteed. 

INCHEON
The move from the JW Marriott was only supposed to be a temporary measure whilst the hotel underwent renovations. We were never consulted nor allowed to provide suitable alternatives whilst the renovations took place, and we were forced to move to the Sheraton. Most complaints were related to the inability to control the room temperature and noise complaints. We hope to have a suitable alternative soon that we are actively working on. 

LUXEMBOURG
During B2B operation we had seen a few cases were crews were booked in a B&B style hotel in Trier-Igel which was neither inspected nor would have ever been approved by us, as it was not fulfilling the basic requirements. In one case, a crew member had to report unfit for duty due to the inability to blackout the light. Similar cases were reported in the NH, which was used quite often on B2B operations, where the complaints mostly related to the lack of temperature control.

SUMMARY
Many deficiencies occur when suitable hotels are not selected. This occurs as costs are the determining factor. The same cost cutting approach has caused cancellations of contracts by hotel managements at various destinations.

The detailed items show in the statistic, that your single report is vital in order for us to act and address issues with Senior Management and with hotels directly. The statistic also reveals the weakness of Cargolux’s booking system and process, mainly for Area 1 (North America), as the majority of Voyage Reports are addressing issues in the US (47). These issues are mostly linked to delays and schedule changes, that are not updated or being unnoticed due to the non-existing 24/7 coverage of A1 travel office.

As long as these issues are not eliminated, we still expect “Crew Rest Disturbances”, “No Bookings upon Arrival” to be happening in the future and we therefore would like to emphasize again every one of you to be vigilant and keep us sending your Voyage Reports, also during COVID-19 operations and social unrest. We have to maintain our minimum hotel standards, our first gate to maintain flight safety!

Stay safe and keep reporting!

Please find below another update on the current situation of our hotels.

CWB
As explained in the last ALPL Members Update in May, due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in Sao Paolo and Rio, there will be no layovers in VCP. The Hotel Committee was asked what recommended hotel could be used.

We normally stayed at the Pestana Hotel but due to the crisis it is closed. We contacted the Bourbon Curitiba Convention Hotel who advised that they were open for business and would provide breakfast and dinner from their restaurant.

We ask that you please provide any reports to the Hotel Committee at cvhotels@alpl.lu as this decision was done fairly quickly and we have not had a chance to view the hotel.

KUL
The Malaysian Health Ministry has relaxed the lockdown procedures and we have moved out of the Sama Sama airport hotel. Our normal hotel JW Marriott is still closed due to the crisis and they have arranged to move crew layovers at their partner hotel Ritz Carlton.

We were advised that breakfast may be available, but we need some feedback on what is the current situation.

SIN/BKK
The lockdown continues in these two cities. We are advised that SIN will continue the lockdown as late as September 2020. BKK has not indicated any timeline at this point in time.

Senior Management has agreed that when layovers in SIN are 2 nights/3 days a suite will be booked for those layovers to alleviate the harsh lockdown procedures imposed by the local authorities.

HKG
The recent events from the Chinese central government on new legislation that may be imposed on HKG has restarted the demonstrations in HKG. We ask that you pay attention what areas you venture into. Please ask the front desk or concierge what information they have on where the demonstrations may occur and avoid them.

On days where the demonstrations may hinder the area towards Kowloon (TST), we have recommended that the Novotel Tung Chung near the airport should be used for layovers.

Conclusions
If there are any deficiencies or recommendations, you would like us to address please send an email to cvhotels@alpl.lu

We regularly update the document of our current hotels for your information. Please click here to have a look.

The Hotel Committee will now have its own dedicated newsletter on the current situation of our hotels.

At Cargolux it has been calculated that we spend up to 75 days (calculated in hours) away from our family and friends per year that a “normal 9 to 5” employee has. Moreover, as has been communicated by the ALPL Board, the quality of hotels must meet the requirements so that we as pilots are able to obtain the best possible rest to conduct our duties safely and that appropriate nutrition is readily available. Therefore, the standards (link) of our hotels must be maintained.

ORD
The recent situation in ORD at the Courtyard Wood Dale, is an example, where neither we as Hotel Committee nor any ALPL Board Member or Delegate were involved in making the decision  which failed miserably. Senior Management informed us at 16.00h on Tuesday 05 May 2020 that due to the COVID risk in the Cook County we were to move from Chicago downtown. We asked to hold off until we could find a suitable alternative. At 21.40h on the same evening the Chief Pilot was asked by Senior Management to send the information that we were moving.

The information that Senior Management provided to the CPO was also inconsistent stating that it was in a residential area and had a mini mart. The fact was that the hotel is located in an industrial area, the mini mart is nothing more than a shelf of crisps, chocolate bars and sodas, nothing close to nutrition and there are no nearby places to obtain any food. The noise from departing aircraft from O’Hare and other factors forced a crew to delay the flight due to not being able to obtain adequate sleep before the wakeup call. Nearly every crew that has had a layover there has written a Voyage Report.

We are pleased to announce that once we took the lead in obtaining a suitable accommodation we will move to the Marriott Naperville (link). We would like to thank a crew who visited the hotel and with our guidance checked all the standards required. Certainly, in these times some items will not be up and running but we have provided a copy of nearby walking distance restaurants (link) of what is available with regard to nutrition.

OVB
This destination has become a hub as Cargolux is shuttling back and forth from Mainland China. There have been reports that social distancing is not being respected. We approached the manager at the hotel, who is grateful to have us there as only cargo crews are keeping it open, to further create a space to enable more social distancing on the 10^th Floor. We believe that this will help, and we ask that you please respect each other.

The manger has had to furlough some of his staff and the remaining have had to take a salary cut. We have created a ‘tip’ box. If you can find a way to support these staff who provide us with all services to make our stay safe, it is for sure appreciated.

SIN
The lockdown continues due to the local health authorities’ requirements. After Senior Management was informed by us that this could potentially have problems with crew being confined in rooms for long periods of time, they agreed to book suites. Unfortunately, we recently found out via your reports that the suites are only available for stays of three (3) nights or longer. We ask what is the difference between 2 nights or 3 nights? We also pointed out that the breakfast allowance also does not adequately meet a minimum nutritional level. We suggested to allocate suites for a duration of 2 nights and longer and we stipulated the allowance (currently SIN $20) to be cumulative. Managements answer is still pending.

Armchair decision making has clearly demonstrated that hotel standards are not provided for. It is vitally important that the standards of hotels are maintained. This can only be achieved with your assistance/support together with the Hotel Committee to select and maintain the most suitable hotel without costs being the determining factor.

Voyage Reports are important, without them, Senior Management will only advise us that there is no problem! Remember to forward your reports to the Hotel Committee.

Please view the document (link) that we have prepared to give you updates on all our current destinations. If there are any omissions or errors, please email them to cvhotels@alpl.lu

Thank you to all of you who are filing the Voyage Reports (VR) on the deficiencies in some of the hotels we are currently staying at. As the Hotel Committee we estimate that 80% of all VR are directly dealing with hotel issues. This is quite an alarming statistic as 3 years ago we might have received one or 2 a month. Sadly, the reasons for the increase is self-evident; The company no longer grants the Hotel Committee members the responsibility to ensure hotels are up to the required standard. Instead, management look at this as a cost item and not as a vital link of the “Safety Chain” that allows us to do our jobs correctly.

Hotels are an intricate part of ensuring we as pilots are well rested before duties. The important components of being rested are being able to control the temperature, lighting and that the noise is managed so that sleep is not disturbed. Other elements such as security and access to nutrition are also part of choosing hotels.

Please click here to see the full list of criteria, which now also is part of the CWA 2020-2022 and must be respected by the company when selecting hotels. If you observe any deficiencies  according to this list, please file a VR. 

In the Secure Content Locker of our iPads, Section 7, the Station Information of approved hotels should have been updated with the hotel benefits. In our regular meetings with management the Hotel Committee has urged that this data is up to date. If you see deficiencies/errors or omissions, please file a VR.

Generally, you will see that there a very few hotels situated at or in the vicinity of airports for one very obvious reason, noise. Exceptions are due to security reasons e.g. currently in HKG. If you are confronted with a last-minute change and sent to an airport hotel, please enforce the guidelines and politely ask to be taken to our normal hotel or a similar standard away from the airport.

The company has also tried to move crews to new hotels in a couple of destinations like KUL without any consultation of the Hotel Committee, which in our opinion is a violation of the Hotel Policy and also has been communicated to management as such. The Hotel Committee is currently trying to remedy these errors to ensure the hotels are up to standard.

As already communicated by your ALPL Cargolux Divisional Board, always apply a very high and professional standard when determining your capability to safely operate your next duty or series of duties!  A high quality of rest in our hotels definitely is a prerequisite for that! 

Again, if there are any deficiencies please send a VR via the iQSMS and also send a copy to cvhotels@alpl.lu. We as Hotel Committee cannot track problematic issues or make changes at hotels without having knowledge of your report. Thank you for your cooperation!

Please click here to read about updates in regard to some of our hotels.

First of all, we would like to thank all the members for taking the time to write the Voyage Reports (VR) highlighting the deficiencies at some of our current hotels. These reports are highly valuable as they provide us with evidence data when approaching both management and the individual hotels.

To further expand on issues you may have encountered, such as food poisoning, disturbances, room issues etc. that affect you, please notify the relevant hotel manager, be polite in your approach and follow it up with a VR, providing a copy to the Hotel Committee (HC). It is very difficult to address certain issues dating back by 3 months after the complaint!

As ANC is one our more frequently visited destinations you may have noticed the change to the Hilton hotel. The contract at the Marriott had been cancelled at short notice and we are currently investigating the main reason for this abrupt decision. Unfortunately, the Hilton is not providing us with the suitable rooms and many complaints are being filed. Cargolux management have been assessing the situation and we are waiting for a response to their visit with a prompt improvement in service.

We are still working on a few other hotels accumulating a higher than normal number of complaints, ICN being one of them. Although adequate offers from competitive hotels have been forwarded to management, they still do not see a reason to move us back to our old hotel the JW Marriott due to costs.

One of the arguments heard repeatedly is that a hotel “satisfies the hotel policy”. Therefore, it is important that if you write a voyage report you should always ask yourself, if this is really the case. Following the wording of an in-house policy is a required, but by far not sufficient prerequisite for selecting a suitable crew-accommodation. We should never forget the aim that any hotel-selection, anywhere, needs to provide an undisturbed pre- and postflight rest. Any other aspect such as budget or location are of secondary importance. We will elaborate later in this text on how to react when facing grievances.

LCK; we have been informed that a move is imminent, but management´s definition of imminent seems sometimes different from ours.

ALA; we are pleased to announce that a new contract has been signed with the Intercontinental, which some of you will remember.

JFK; rumors of closure are still floating around, but we have been assured that a suitable vendor for the property has not yet been found. Therefore, a short-term change seems to be unlikely, however we continue to assess this situation.

CGK is a new destination on our network with one frequency per week. The hotel committee has looked at the Shangri-La in town, which meets all the requirements including security. It was the intention that the hotel will be assessed for three months, but despite all the preparatory work unfortunately for the time being still the Mercure hotel is being planned. We will continue to work with management to ensure that the Shangri-La will be booked in the future.

There is still an issue where crews are not informed of hotels changes in a timely fashion as it used to be a few years ago. We have requested an improved communication procedure between Procurement Department and Flt Ops Management in order to avoid surprises and disruption to crew rest. We await an outcome to their meeting.

We continue to address hotel issues with our management, but this is only possible with you taking the time to write a VR and copying in cvhotels@alpl.lu in order for us to monitor any negative trends. 

As mentioned above, hotels have to be suitable, so that we as crew members are able to obtain undisturbed rest (meaning a quiet part of the hotel), where we can control the temperature and lighting. Should this not be the case a room change must be requested. Please explain to the hotel management in a polite way that you as a crew member are responsible to be fit for duty and if proper rest is not achieved, one consequence may be to delay the flight until such time as the required rest is achieved.

This is the first update since we asked our members to join the Hotel Committee to actively support those who are already part of it. We would like to thank the following new members joining David Wainwright and George Karambilas in their effort to improve and maintain the quality of hotels:

• Tim Garnich
• Jochen Ehrenfeld
• Jonas Hindersin
• Ingo Schuster
• Tobias Woll

We have seen some testing times recently with regard to hotel changes. Unfortunately we have not been consulted about a few of these hotel changes but are still working to try and resolve the issues.

It appears that we have been moved back into the Hyatt in MIA solely from a cost issue. The hotel committee members and the first crews to arrive were not even told about the move, from the Conrad back to the hotel we moved away from due to noise issues.

If you see yourself booked into a hotel that is not known to you, please check with the Chief Pilot Office (CPO) and also send us an email at cvhotels@alpl.lu so we can try and follow it up. We hope to resolve the issues we have soon, but in the meantime, please use the usual channels to alert about fatigue issues relating from hotel issues.

As communicated to you by the Divisional Board in the past, should you require some additional rest in order to be fit for your next duty or series of duties, please notify Crew Control, Dispatch and the local station about your decision. Also file a proactive Fatigue Report and Air Safety Report if needed!

Please forward these reports also to the Hotel Committee at cvhotels@alpl.lu.

We move as of April 1st to the Steigenberger and Omni hotels respectively.

DWC/DXB
We have for many year tried to move away from the Crowne Plaza, and after much effort have managed to get into the Steigenberger hotel in the business district. It is a relatively new hotel, 10 minutes walk from the Burg Kahlifa and associted mall. There are a few restaurants around the local area, and it is a few miles closer to DWC airport.

ORD
We move to the Omni hotel a few blocks from our current hotel. We believe that this hotel should be quieter and hope that as we are the first airline crew that they have things will go smoothly. Please be patient with the staff if you encounter problems and send us a mail at cvhotels@alpl.lu and the associated company procedures.

We hope you can enjoy the rest!

Happy new year!

As our current hotel in ICN, the JWMarriott is undergoing renovations, and as a result has closed for up to 6 months we have re-located over the road to the Sheraton.

The hotel committee would value your feedback based on stay there via email at cvhotels@alpl.lu. As always if your rest was not satisfactory, please use either Voyage Report, Fatigue or Air Safety Report to help us address any issues.

In general, the hotel committee would like to thank all of you who are pro active in addressing issues we encounter on the road, and whilst we are do our best to address these problems, there are other factors that we have to take into consideration.

We are pleased to say that the majority of the hotels we currently stay at have been re-signed for another year or two. This is excellent news and the Hotel Committee would like to thank Cargolux management for working with us to ensure that our rest is not compromised.

You may however, see a few hotel changes on our network in the coming months, due to either us upgrading our hotel in an area, or because the hotel is undergoing renovations. The latter will be the case in ICN, BAH, and MCT, that we currently know of. We are currently working with Cargolux management to make sure suitable alternatives are provided.

In DXB we hope to be trying out a new hotel soon and will update you of progress as we go.

In NYC we will probably move to a voucher, to be submitted for breakfast. This will hopefully eliminate the current confusion surrounding what you are eligible to, but as it stands at present it remains, 1 coffee, 1 orange juice, 1 main dish, 1 side. (CV standard, steak and eggs is considered a side and main!

In Europe we are trying to find solutions to BRU and ZAZ asap. if you have any ideas solutions, please let us know!

We will bring you updates as we work on improvements throughout the year, but please keep us abreast of any issues you encounter so we can be proactive in correction these issues!

It just remains for YELHC to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, knowing that we are trying to ensure that Santa will know wherever you are on the 25th!

This also seems to be in cases whereby we have a charter to a destination and so the Hotel Committee is simple bypassed in any consultation and a hotel that is not up to the standards of supplying quality rest is being provided for your use.

If you experience this, please use a Voyage Report (VR) via the iQSMS application. Send the copy of the VR to cvhotels@alpl.lu

If you have experienced degraded rest due to the hotel conditions please file a Fatigue Report and Air Safety Report if needed. Please forward these reports also to the Hotel Committee at cvhotels@alpl.lu.